1-7 June every year is National Volunteers Week and we like to make our volunteers feel a little bit special. Here's a short video we put together to share with the world what we do!

Anne and Karen, as joint Chairs of Girlguiding Gloucestershire’s trustees,   were privileged to attend a reception on Monday hosted by Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace to celebrate 60 years of £1 billion charitable giving by the Garfield Weston Foundation. They had selected 120 of the 44,000 charities they have supported over the 60 years to attend. We were there as we had received a grant for our recent refurbishment of the toilet and shower block at Deer Park. ( A big thank you to Helen Welsh for applying successfully for the grant for us.) We were very excited to find on arrival that we had been selected to speak to Prince Charles. He asked about our waiting lists and spoke about his setting up of Youth United – an initiative which is close to Karen’s heart as it was funding from Youth United which helped set up Cheltenham’s Saturday Rainbows.

Garfield Weston Foundation was set up by the Weston family 60 years ago when they decided to put 80% of their family’s company (United Biscuits) shares into the foundation. United Biscuits produce lots of well known brands from Twinings tea, to Jordans, to McVities and also own Fortnum and Masons. So next time you eat a McVities biscuit remember that some of the profit is going to charity!

Forty members of ‘The County Fellowship’ met for their Spring Meeting at Deer Park, Cowley. The Fellowship started their day with morning tea and coffee welcoming fellow members from around the County of Gloucestershire. A brief business session, during which time Joint County Commissioner Karen McFarlane updated members of the activities and events held across all sections of Girlguiding Gloucestershire throughout the past six months. Members were pleased to see in action the ‘Weather Station’ which was on display, having been purchased by Fellowship for Deer Park giving weather information for the area, allowing planning of activities accordingly within the scope of the weather.
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The Speaker for the day was Mr Tim Thorn, formerly head of security at De Beers Diamond Company – Talking on ‘The Millennium Star Diamond’, he outlined the history of the finding of the diamond, how it was cut and polished. Its journey to London and value. De Beers decision to display it in the Millennium Dome, the building of the concrete and steel viewing vault in which it was kept. Tim went on to outline to members of the six aborted attempts by robbers to steal the diamond, and the eventual capture and prosecution of the gang. At all times telling members of his part in ‘The Story’.

Members completed their day with a three-course lunch provided by Regal Cuisine of Cheltenham and singing Taps before their farewell.

Our Annual Review of 2017 took place at The Pavillion in Cheltenham where we tried a new style of event; an afternoon tea! We were joined by Leaders & Commissioners from across the County as well as our Region Chief Commissioner, Carole Pennington, our Region President, Ruth Sara, and a variety of dignitaries and special guests.
 
Visitors had the opportunity to view a variety of displays from Divisions, County Events, International trips, etc. before we joined together in the main auditorium to celebrate everything that we have done in Gloucestershire in the last year. We were delighted to award Sue Cooper from Cheltenham our Uniformed County Award, Wendy Lewis and Linda Raggett, both from the Forest of Dean, with a Non-Uniformed County Award, as well as a Walking Level 1 and Peer Education Bronze Award. Carole Pennington also presented Belinda Murphy with her Queen's Guide Award.
 
Below are the presentations we gave at the event, one is a general Annual Review 2017 and the other focuses on the fantastic Rainbows 30th Birthday Celebration Day held at Deer Park last summer. We were also able to take some photos of today's proceedings.
Enjoy!

Louise Dembny was presented with the British Empire Medal for her fantastic service to the community, including to Girlguiding in her local area. The award was presented by Dame Janet Trotter, the Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire, during the morning service at Christ Church, Nailworth, where Louise is an active member of the congregation.

As Dame Janet read the citation, she made us aware of the huge number of community and international areas that Louise has been involved in including being a supporter at the Christ Church, 30 years of being a Leader for Girlguiding, fundraising for several charities both at home and abroad.She spoke of her work at the Job Centre where Louise has helped to transform the lives of numerous clients with health issues or disabilities to get into or back into work.

Louise showed how she is always thinking of others when she read her own piece to the congregation and the first thing she did was to acknowledge and thank everyone who has helped her along the way to being awarded the BEM.

​Congratulation Louise. We think it was definitely well deserved.

Today saw 40 of our esteemed District and Division Commissioners join the County Commissioners at Deer Park for the annual Commissioner Conference. The bulk of the day was spent in the A Safe Space level 4 training but once this was completed there was some fun planned for them! Three of the onsite activities at Deer Park were opened for them to have a go at ; archery, pistols and our newest activity, the Zip Wire.

The new zip wire is located at the very top of Bubbs Hill, the furthest point from the main buildings where the training had taken place. About 12 of the Commissioners, including the 2 County Commissioners, took the 20 minute trek over to the Bubbs Hill site and up a very large hill. But it was agreed by all that it was worth the effort. You can see for yourself from the photos and video below how much these ladies enjoyed it. 

Our official opening takes place on 14th April but this was a good opportunity for the Commissioners to test it out and make sure it was working properly!

The verdict - It's awesome!!!!

Despite the snowy weather, 10 volunteers and 1 Centre Manager headed up to Deer Park today for training to become instructors on our new zip wire. Here's a few photos of those who would let us take photos!

Celebrations took place all over the county in units, Districts and Divisions. Here are just a few photos of what we've been up to.

The County Arts Day saw girls from all sections and from across the County come together for a day filled with a variety of performing arts activities. These included circus skills, playing the ocarina, making puppets, playing percussion, learning to dance and doing drama.

The whole day culminated in a performance of their new found skills to a room full of very proud parents! Well done to all the girls taking part and thank you to the Arts team for putting on a great day.

UK Parliament Week ran from 12-18 November 2017 and many of our units across the County got involved. Activities included holding their own elections, debating whether Brownie uniform should stay or go (I am pleased to say they decided it should stay!), visits from local MPs, Parliament related quizzes and making shortbread Big Bens.

We were proud to see so many of our Guiding members attending Remembrance parades and services across the County. Thank you to everyone who made the effort to remember those who fell during the war.

Girlguiding Dursley District, Gloucestershire West Division, ran the local fireworks display again this year and with around 2000 people visiting the event they raised an astounding £7,000 for the local organisations involved an their chosen charity, the Gloucestershire Young Carers.

​A huge congratulations to the whole of the Dursley Team and their fabulous volunteers for putting on such a great evening.

Back in July we reported how Chloe received the Guiding Star Award for bravery and determination in challenging circumstances. Today she headed to the BBC Radio Gloucestershire studios to fly her star on the radio waves!

Chloe went along to talk to Dominic Cotter with her Mum and County Commissioner Karen McFarlane went along too. Chloe spoke very clearly and confidently about her life with cerebral palsy and the operation she undertook and shared with listeners what it was like to walk unaided for the first time. She went on to share her experience of being a Rainbow and a Brownie. 

Chloe acted as a true ambassador for Girlguiding Gloucestershire and proved just why she deserved that Guiding Star award.

Well done Chloe.


Listen to the interview here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05jg3ky#play (starting at 12.25)

The adventure began when I attended two selection camps. The first was a County camp at Foxlease (May 2015) where one of the challenges was to organise an entertainment and a craft for everyone. Then the second, which was at Woodhouse Park (July 2015) for Region, where there were lots more girls. We were also interviewed individually and there were three different trips available, (Finland, Interrailing and Canada). Half of us ended up sleeping in tepees which was fun. I then found out that I had the place during the same summer.

The next step of the journey was the pre-weekend camps where I got to know everyone I was travelling with. The first one was in Nunney Village Hall and everyone met each other for the first time which was daunting but everyone was in the same boat. During the weekend we talked about what we wanted to include in the itinerary as well as choose the colours for the tops and design our badge – which ended up having a moose on it. The second weekend we camped in Wiltshire where it poured down with rain the whole weekend (good old Great British weather!) however despite the elements we started making banners for the opening ceremony for the camp and did team building exercises.

The last camp was at Foxlease when we did a bag check and shared tips on packing – a 60 litre rucksack really doesn’t have a lot of room!!! Also, we started to make badge swaps (traders in Canada) for when we were at the camp – however I really underestimated how much this was a huge part of camplife. I only brought a limited amount of badges, and ended up having to buy some more so that I could keep up with so many people wanting a badge from an English girl. My poor mum volunteered to sew on all the badges I traded when I got back! However, it was great when we were out there because we got to know lots of others when swapping badges and it was an easy way to introduce yourself to people.

Another major part of the challenge is the fundraising for the trip. As part of mine I wrote lots of letter to different companies/charities asking if they would give me grants and many were extremely generous. After receiving help from them, I went on a fundraising morning with The Lions Club and the Rotary Club have asked me to go and talk about my trip. As well as this I have done cake and sweet sales as well as running a bingo evening and catering for a performathon event. I have been so lucky having support from friends, family and teachers helping me with my fundraising and supporting me – even if it meant eating a lot of cake!

One part of the pre-trip that was not so much fun was filling out the Epact (health) forms and the health and safety activity waivers. My parents and I couldn’t quite believe how difficult these were to do and the sheer amount covered the whole kitchen table. It took us two attempts to get the forms right and I’m so glad we did because I got to go shooting.

When the day arrived for flying out, it was so exciting because there had been such a long run up to the event. I had a very early start to get to Heathrow on time – not that much sleeping happened the night before. The first flight to Vancouver was really long and the second one (from Vancouver to Smithers) was shorter and a much smaller plane but it was intercountry. In the airport, we met other Guides also travelling to Smithers. When we got to Smithers we flew over the campsite and we could see forests for miles – it was so beautiful. The airport was surrounded by mountains and the whole of Smithers was in a valley.

We had heard in the news in the weeks before about the wildfires that had been in British Columbia and were worried that the camp might not take place. At the camp they had a fire safety drill the first full day everyone was there so we knew what to do. When we were travelling by train in the second week we had delays because the supply trains for the wildfires has priority which resulted in us being very late to some of our destinations – but it did mean that we had longer to explore some of the places we were in which was great.

Another major part of the challenge is the fundraising for the trip. As part of mine I wrote lots of letter to different companies/charities asking if they would give me grants and many were extremely generous. After receiving help from them, I went on a fundraising morning with The Lions Club and the Rotary Club have asked me to go and talk about my trip. As well as this I have done cake and sweet sales as well as running a bingo evening and catering for a performathon event. I have been so lucky having support from friends, family and teachers helping me with my fundraising and supporting me – even if it meant eating a lot of cake!

One part of the pre-trip that was not so much fun was filling out the Epact (health) forms and the health and safety activity waivers. My parents and I couldn’t quite believe how difficult these were to do and the sheer amount covered the whole kitchen table. It took us two attempts to get the forms right and I’m so glad we did because I got to go shooting.

When the day arrived for flying out, it was so exciting because there had been such a long run up to the event. I had a very early start to get to Heathrow on time – not that much sleeping happened the night before. The first flight to Vancouver was really long and the second one (from Vancouver to Smithers) was shorter and a much smaller plane but it was intercountry. In the airport, we met other Guides also travelling to Smithers. When we got to Smithers we flew over the campsite and we could see forests for miles – it was so beautiful. The airport was surrounded by mountains and the whole of Smithers was in a valley.

We had heard in the news in the weeks before about the wildfires that had been in British Columbia and were worried that the camp might not take place. At the camp they had a fire safety drill the first full day everyone was there so we knew what to do. When we were travelling by train in the second week we had delays because the supply trains for the wildfires has priority which resulted in us being very late to some of our destinations – but it did mean that we had longer to explore some of the places we were in which was great.

When we got to camp, international groups arrived the day before the Canadian guides so we had more time to settle in. At the opening ceremony we had a message from the Canadian president (Justin Trudeau) which none of us expected. Being an international group we got paired with a Canadian patrol who provided us with tents and cooking equipment. Also it meant that we could talk to the others, make friends and learn more about their culture which is very different to ours.
One tip I did learn from them is that instead of having tea towels, once you have done the washing up – you put the wet crockery into a mesh drawstring bag, hang it up and let it drip dry, it was so effective and so much easier than drying everything up.

​Being a Ranger at camp meant that I got to go on a three-day off-site trip. For mine I got to go on a bush craft type trip. As part of this I got to shoot rifles, shot guns, BB guns and pistols. Luckily, we got to see a gun display which was incredible as we got to learn about the older guns that used to use black powder and about the gun culture which was so interesting. We also got to work with gun dogs and learn how they train them. Another day we got a series of talks about how the native Canadian people used to live. One was by a local chief talking about their religion and their way of life which is far from how we live in this country. The other talk was from a trapper who talked about laws when shooting and trapping meat. I also was lucky enough to get to skin a beaver and learn how to treat the skin - it was strangely enjoyable as I knew the meat was going to be eaten. Our temporary campsite was about a half hour drive from Smithers and we were in bear country. I was lucky enough to see a black bear in the wild, however, we still blame it for stealing our jello from the food stores!!!

Another part of the out trip is that you need to do some community service to put back something into a community. We went around and put up keep out signs on trees which was fun as ladders are great when on uneven ground! I actually got to do two community services during the week and my other one was making a rock pool and sand pit for a kindergarten. Whilst doing this I saw two wild beavers swimming down the river which was really cool. The week we spent at camp there were so many incredible opportunities and I so lucky with my selection and I made lots of friends along the way.

During the camp we had entertainment each night including an international evening where we had to perform to the rest of camp. The closing ceremony was great as we had fox-fest where there were lots of fox themed activities and food (Felicity Fox was the SOAR mascot). Then we watched the sun go down as we danced, sang and watched a video summary of the whole camp. We were lucky enough to be sitting on the front row and had an amazing view.

When we got back to Smithers the first thing we thought about was having a shower (there were no showers in camp) and we did all smell. We also found that the hotel had washing machines and tumble dryers so we washed all our clothes communally (to save money) and all felt a lot cleaner afterwards. The next day I got to go to church (in my uniform) which was great as I could experience a different type of Christian meeting. I went to the new reformed church; the building was really pretty and everyone was very welcoming because the community had been surrounded by Guides all week and were really happy that I wanted to see more of their culture.

We got to visit Prince George and Jasper on the way to Vancouver. We didn’t see much of Prince George as it was a brief stop on the train line. However, because of the 12-hour train delay we got to spend a whole day in Jasper national park. The whole town was extreme beautiful as it was surrounded by snow covered mountains and there were lots of touristy things to do which was great because we got to go and sight see in groups and do a little retail therapy. Once we had spent the day there we ended up sleeping on the station platform which was fun. The Station Master put out tea and biscuits for us so we sat there, playing cards and drinking tea at four in the morning – which I think I can say really was a truly once in a lifetime opportunity!

The last day we had in Canada was in Vancouver and we went to Grouse Mountain for our closing ceremony. We got the cable car up and down the mountain and we could see for miles across the whole of the city. Part of our ending ceremony was that two people said their promise and one of our leaders was awarded a service badge. Also, it was a time to reflect on the fact we had just had an amazing time while we were out there – until we got interrupted by a group of deer!

Last of all we then got the plane home – which was also delayed and when we got back no one’s baggage got lost which was a huge relief!

My experience was incredible. The leaders were fabulous and I met many people along the way making friends as well. As part of the trip I think I became more resilient as a person and learnt a lot about myself and created many memories that will stay with me for the rest of my life. I would recommend the INTOPs programme to anyone looking for an adventure because it truly is a once in a life time opportunity and I am incredibly grateful. 

Grace Clare, 2nd Cotswold North Rangers